Born Wolf
by Victoria Wolf
Summary: Teen Wolf from Derek's point of view. Every episode (eventually) all the behind the scenes stuff Teen Wolf doesn't show. Rated M just for safety, mostly T.


This is the pilot of Teen Wolf from Derek's point of view.

I would like to reiterate that this is from DEREK'S point of view; I love Scott and Stiles but he does not. This has been sitting in my head because I have always loved Derek's character and I feel like b/c the show's mostly from Scott's point of view that a lot of his story gets missed or misinterpreted.

Disclaimer: I may occasionally send strangers Blocked txts that read "I hid the body… now what?"

****S01E01****

Derek Hale sat in the forest clearing and tried to relax. The moon wasn't quite full but its glow was enough to fill him with its power. He raised his face, eyes closed, in a type of ecstasy. He briefly wondered if this was how humans felt when they sun bathed in the summer on the first warm day of the year.

If Laura had been there she would have scolded him, calling him moonstruck, and she would have given him a lecture about getting lost in the moon's power. But when the moon sat as it was now, not quite full; it gave him enough peace that for a moment he could forget his worries and guilt. The thought of Laura made him nervous and he opened his eyes for a quick look around. Derek didn't like being alone, hated it in fact; a werewolf was nothing without his pack. The fact that his only living relative was also his sister and Alpha made it worse when she wasn't around.

Derek felt like the loneliness was a type of penance and he never mentioned his feelings to Laura. Which is why it had been so long since she last checked in. Worry pushed the last thoughts of the moon's glow from Derek's mind and he made the decision to look for his missing Alpha.

That was when Derek felt her die. Pain ripped through him and drove him to his knees. His mind reeling it took Derek what felt like hours to get his bearings. His wolf cried out and as he felt it rise in his chest he fought the urge to let it loose. Derek felt the urge to tear and destroy to hunt out whoever had killed his Alpha and rip them to tiny bits.

_Easy. Breathe. _It was ironic that it was Laura's voice in his head that helped calm him down. Laura wasn't a natural Alpha; she was too soft and caring. Derek should have been Alpha and they both knew it, but with the guilt he felt there was no way he could allow himself to be in charge so Laura took charge of them when their pack died and kept the two of them alive. _Easy, breathe._ Those were the very words she used whenever he felt out of control, those were the words she used to calm him; and like always they worked.

Derek was calm and collected when he walked to his car. But the moment he sat behind the driver's seat he found himself on autopilot. It was the dawn poking over the horizon that finally made him realize he had driven all night long; it only felt like a few minutes. Derek pulled over as he spotted a sign ahead of him and he stared.

_Welcome to Beacon Hills._ He had driven home, though he hadn't been there since the fire almost six years ago.

****S01E01****

Derek drove the rest of the way home, winding his car through trees that had once been as familiar to him as his bedroom walls. As he pulled up to the burned out husk of his childhood home Derek sat in his car letting it idle. Memories of his mostly happy childhood flashed through his mind, but instead of being comforting they burned at him like the flames that had demolished his family. Derek turned his car off and took a deep breath before he opened the door and stepped out onto his front yard.

The place still smelled of smoke, though most humans wouldn't have noticed. Derek strode away from his home and into the woods, following his instincts. Once Derek was deep into the woods he paused to listen. The familiar sounds of the local animals and insects told him that there weren't any humans around so he crouched and allowed his animalistic nature to peek through his human façade.

Last night's rain meant that a lot of smells would be gone, but every time a human turned over a leaf they left their scent on it and protected their scent to some degree from the rain. One deep breath and Derek could smell all of the humans and dogs that had traipsed about his property, but one scent stood out. _Chris Argent. _

Of course the werewolf hunter would be in the thick of things. He smelled of cotton, leather, metal, gunpowder, and under it all his own unique scent. Derek remembered the hunter from his childhood and he was somehow unsurprised that he hadn't changed in the last six years. A person's scent evolves as they go through life; simple things like changing detergent or household cleaning products, would alter it slightly. Larger life changes, like jobs, exercise routines, living arrangements, and outlook could alter it further to the point where it could be unrecognizable. Derek knew that another werewolf, if they knew him before the fire, would never recognize him by scent now; and he felt an undeniable rage that Chris hadn't been as affected.

Derek tracked Chris's scent through the woods; he caught Chris's companion's scents and catalogued them for later before he ignored them to focus once more on Chris. He tracked them for almost a mile before he realized he was smelling blood. _Laura._ Abandoning the hunter Derek lifted his nose and sought out his sister's body. There were two trails; one was probably residual so he focused on the strongest and headed south. It wasn't long before he found Laura's upper body and he closed his eyes for a moment in anguish.

Derek took a moment to collect himself and then focused on separating himself from his emotions. This wasn't his kind vibrant sister, this was a stranger, and he needed to figure out what happened to her. Derek opened his eyes and found it wasn't so hard to believe the person in front of him wasn't his sister; she looked nothing like the Laura he had known. He began to look at her like a puzzle, what did her pieces tell him?

_Her mouth was open in shock._

_Her eyes wide in disbelief with a hint of accusation._

_She was naked except for dirt and blood._

_She ended quite abruptly at the waist. _

Derek closed his eyes again to block out the sight of his sister's mangled upper body. It was obvious that Laura had been in full wolf form, it was the only reason she would be naked in the middle of the woods. Whoever had killed her had done it when she was at her most powerful, that meant it was probably a hunter. _Argent._

Rage bubbled just below the surface and Derek pushed it down until it pooled in his stomach with the rest of his rage, leaving him with a tight ball he could unleash later; right now he needed to bury his sister. Derek took off his jacket and hung it on a tree to mark the small part of the clearing he found his sister's body in so that it would be easy to find again; then he gathered her in his arms as best he could, and he clenched his jaw when pieces of her intestines started to slip out. He hooked one arm under her mangled waist to keep everything in and placed the other arm under her shoulders as though he were carrying a baby.

_Laura will never have children now._ When Laura had mentioned she was seeing someone and it was getting serious Derek had teased her about raising puppies with a human. They both knew there was a 50/50 chance that any child born of a werewolf-human relationship would be a human too, but it was fun to tease his sister about little things. She had taken the ribbing mostly in silence then retaliated a few days later by taking him to a playground.

They stood there for hours, just watching the children play. Derek hadn't realized how much he missed his cousins and younger siblings until he saw the human children. Images of their burnt bodies flashed through his mind and Derek fought down a protective growl. "Puppies or babies, they will survive. No one will hurt my family again." Derek promised her, realizing that maybe if he helped her keep her children alive, safe from hunters and other werewolves, that he might repent in some small way for the deaths he caused.

Now Derek would never have the chance for even that small amount of repentance.

When Derek got to his home he dug around in the burned out shell that used to be the garage until he found a shovel. It felt wrong to bury her at their home where the rest of their family died, he would have rather have her buried in one piece in a coffin near the rest of his family in the large Hale plot, but the Argents couldn't even let him have that much. It didn't take him long to bury his sister, he only had to dig half a grave. He wrapped her in a burial shroud made from some painter's canvas he found while looking for the shovel.

Once he finished he went back to the woods where he found her. Derek gathered up piles of blood coated leaves from the crime scene and carried them to the river in arm loads. The water washed his sister's blood off the leaves as well as his arms leaving nothing for the police to find. Once cleanup was complete Derek shrugged his jacket back on and started looking for his sister's killer. He cast about for a scent so that he knew for certain who had killed his sister.

A hint of sweat and fear led him to a pile of leaves hiding an inhaler. There was no indication as to who it belonged to but Derek took a deep breath so that he could burn the owners scent into his brain before he put the inhaler in his pocket. Certain he had the scent locked in he started casting about for more, and found it down the hill from his sisters' murder. There was more blood down at the end of the hill; it wasn't Laura's blood, and it was surrounded by the scent of werewolf. Laura must gotten in a few good hits before the hunters took her down.

Derek tracked blood droplets to the road and he found tire tracks that might indicate someone was picked up, along with a small pool of blood. Cars have a unique scent as well, but the smell of burning rubber threatened to overpower it. Derek knew that he would recognize the car when he smelled it again.

By this time it was well past midday and Derek started heading back to his own car; that's when he heard them. Humans traipsing about his property again. They weren't being stealthy, so probably not hunters, and Derek realized he was tired of his home being invaded. He set off in their direction, determined to drive them away from his land.

As soon as he got near enough to overhear their conversation clearly Derek realized that they were just kids and he almost turned around and went back; until he realized exactly what they were talking about. The subject of their conversation made him listen harder, and he began to follow them.

"So all this started with a bite?" Voice one asked.

"Wha-What if it's like an infection?" Voice two asked with a definite note of worry. "Like, my body's flooding with adrenaline before I go into shock or something?"

"You know what, I actually think I've heard of this." Voice one said, with the smallest hint of humor in his voice. "It's a specific kind of infection."

The rustle of leaves halt as they stop walking.

"Are you serious?" Voice two said, his voice getting more serious and less panicked.

"Yeah. Yeah, it's called…" Voice one inhaled for dramatic affect. "Lycanthropy."

"What's that? Is that bad?" Voice two asked, definitely concerned.

"Oh yeah, it's the worst; but only once a month." Voice one said seriously.

"Once a month?"

"Mhm. On the night of the full moon." Derek found himself taking an instant dislike for voice one and his mocking, even before voice one let out a fake howl, and he found himself pleased when he heard the sound of someone getting hit before both teenagers continued towards wherever they were heading. The wind was blowing their scent away to the east and he was tracking them from northwest, he hadn't run across their scent yet, but Derek found that he wasn't worried; they were obviously just stupid teenagers.

"Hey, you're the one who heard a wolf howling." Voice one said as though that were a defense.

"There could be something seriously wrong with me!" Voice two defended himself, irritation mixing with humor at his friend's antics.

"I know! You're a werewolf!" Voice one continued, making a fake growl that sounded more like a zombie then a werewolf. "Okay, obviously I'm kidding! But if you see me in shop class trying to melt all the silver I can find, it's because Friday's a full moon."

Derek could feel the moons power the moment the human mentioned it. Friday, tomorrow night, he would be at his strongest and he would have his revenge on the Argents and the hunter who killed his sister. He had almost caught up to the teenage trespassers before Derek realized they had walked directly to the site of his sister's murder.

"I-I could have sworn this was it. I saw the body, the deer came running… I dropped my inhaler."

Derek felt numb. The person he had tracked from his sister's body to the road hadn't been a hunter; he was a teenage boy. An asthmatic teenage boy who had been bitten by another werewolf; there was no way it could have been Laura if he had seen her body first.

_Unless_. Unless he was lying to his friend. If he was a hunter but the other boy wasn't he would have to make a story up about finding the body first. But if he was a hunter then he would know he was going to turn, and if he was bitten before he killed Laura he would be an Alpha. Derek positioned himself down wind and could instantly smell both boys. One of them was definitely a werewolf.

One of them was crouched shuffling around in the leaves while the other stood back and watched.

"Maybe the killer moved the body." Voice one was the boy standing up. His hair was buzzed short and he had a lean body type, not overly muscular but not skinny either, his skin was pale like he spent a lot of time inside with a computer. Definitely a smartass.

The boy that was crouched had longer hair and darker skin. But it wasn't darker just from the sun, definitely genetics. He was more muscular but still built along similar lines as voice one. He looked up when voice one spoke. "If he did I hope he left my inhaler. Those things are like eighty bucks."

Derek felt the rage in his stomach boil as they spoke so casually about his sister's murder, while standing over the spot her body came to rest. He stood in plain sight and just waited for them to feel his presence.

Smartass noticed him first, which surprised Derek because he would have thought the budding werewolf would have felt him, he reached down and tapped his buddy's shoulder to get his attention even as he turned to face Derek. Derek didn't think Smartass even noticed how his hand went to the side of his neck to protect it until after it got there and the boy turned his protective response into a scratch.

Smartass put his hands in his pockets and hunched a little, making himself smaller and protecting his belly in a very wolf like manner, he looked up from his ducked head so that when he made eye contact it was from a lower position and therefore non-challenging. If Derek hadn't been certain that the scent coming off him was human he would have sworn Smartass was the werewolf instead of the other boy. Smartass threw out all the appeasing signals without ever realizing it, while the other boy stood there with a vaguely stupid expression on his face. Definitely a dumbass.

Derek strode up to them, watching Dumbass carefully to see if he recognized him. "What are you doing here?"

Smartass turned sidewise making himself less of a target and ducked his head, he turned the motion into a head rub to disguise the movement but Derek knew he was reacting instinctively to his aggression. When Derek showed no signs of appeasement but didn't attack Smartass stood up a little slid to the side so that he stood closer to Dumbass. _Safety in numbers._

"This is private property." Derek felt like snarling but he kept his voice human, unwilling to show his hand to Dumbass if he was really a hunter. Smartass kept his hands in his pockets and shrugged while Dumbass stood there for a moment more, still shocked and unmoving. Perhaps he did recognize Derek and he was trying to decide if he was going to die. Or maybe he was just trying to figure out his reaction to Derek as another werewolf, if he knew nothing of werewolves he would be feeling very strange right now.

It was of course Smartass who responded to Derek's query. "Uh, sorry man we didn't know."

"We were just… looking for something… but…" Dumbass trailed off. Derek felt the urge to growl as Dumbass stood there for a moment longer without saying anything. If he would react one way of another Derek would be able to kill him as a hunter or help him as a boy who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Derek couldn't rule Dumbass out as a suspect in his sister's murder yet because despite Dumbass's behavior he was meeting Derek's eyes easily and Derek didn't feel the urge to put him in his place, which _might_ mean Dumbass was more dominant.

Dumbass finally continued his sentence. "uh… forget it."

Derek dug the inhaler out of his pocket and threw it at him in a test of reflexes. Dumbass caught it easily. There was still no proof towards of either of Derek's theories so he finally turned and walked away once Dumbass stopped staring at him to look at his inhaler.

Derek could hear them talking about him the moment he stepped out of view.

"Alright. Come on I have to get to work." Dumbass said. Derek wondered if that was an excuse to ditch his friend so he could tell the other hunters like Argent about Derek's return, or if he really just had work.

"Dude!" Smartass exclaimed, and Derek briefly wondered if they ever called each other by their names or if they would forever be Dumbass and Smartass. "That was Derek Hale." Derek suddenly wondered if Smartass was actually a hunter too. "You remember right? He's only like a few years older than us."

"Remember what?"

"His family?" Smartass said as though to jog Dumbass's memory. "They all burned to death in a fire like ten years ago."

"Well, what's he doing back?"

Smartass huffed noncommittally and started to walk away quickly through the trees if the sound of his footsteps were anything to go by, it took Dumbass a few seconds to head off too.

Derek rested his head against the bark of a tree for a few minutes to sort out his thoughts.

There were two ways Laura could have died.

There was a strong possibility that the hunters killed Laura. If Laura found out the Argent's killed their family by setting the fire then they wouldn't even have to do much to lure her out to their old property. If that happened then Dumbass probably got bitten while she was fighting for her life, and he was probably a hunter and if he was the one who actually killed her he would be an Alpha.

The other possibility was less likely. An Omega wolf lured Laura back home and killed her somehow for her Alpha status. But she had fought Omegas before and Derek just couldn't figure out how one got the drop on her. That Omega would then be able to turn other people into werewolves and make his or her own pack. If they ran into Dumbass shortly after he found Laura's body and turned him, then Dumbass would be a link back to the werewolf that killed his sister.

Derek realized he would have to wait until Friday to know for certain which of the two scenarios was correct. If under the full moon Dumbass turned into an Alpha then Derek would kill him and reclaim his family's Alpha power, but if he was just a Beta then Derek would help him come to grips with his new powers and then hunt down the creature that killed the last of his family. In the meantime there were a lot of things Derek needed to settle before the full moon tomorrow night.

Derek made it back to his car without running into anyone else. Derek looked at himself and realized that while his black shirt hid it well, he needed to do laundry before someone got close enough to see that half his shirt was covered in dried blood. There was no power or running water at his old home so Derek had to make a decision, he could stay in a hotel and possibly leave a money trail for the Argents to find, or he could rough it out and live in his home.

_I can always wash my clothing in the stream._ Derek looked at his home and the rapidly descending darkness, if he was going to explore and figure out the most livable areas of his home he should do it now while there was still enough light to see by.

The door was intact and the frame wasn't too warped so Derek was able to close it behind him. The state had officially condemned the property, but the Hales still technically owned it, so he wasn't even trespassing.

There were only a few beer bottles from teenage partiers, but cigarette butts were everywhere. Derek looked down at them and felt something in his chest tighten; his mother hadn't allowed anyone to smoke in their house. If he cleaned up then the hunters would find out he was living there that much sooner, but Derek found himself carefully plucking each butt off the ground and cradling them in his hand, Mom had always said they should have pride in their home.

_We may be werewolves but we don't live in a dungeon!_ Her voice seemed to echo through the house and Derek actually found himself smiling, because the whole family would instantly respond with, _yeah, the dungeon is downstairs!_

Derek finished picking up all the cigarette butts, but he left the more obvious bottles in place. He carried his handful of litter to his car and dumped them in his empty ashtray; he would throw them away when he went into town for essentials. He reentered the house, and allowed memories to wash over him. That was the table they all ate at; Dad insisted they eat together at least once a week as a pack, both humans and werewolves. That mirror was his aunt's, she bought it at a flea market in Maine and his Uncle had complained the whole way that it would cost more to ship it home then it was worth. That couch was where he last saw his cousin alive, they had watched a rerun of So Weird on the TV that no longer existed.

The good memories swamped him and for a moment they overwhelmed the bad memories, there were so many more good memories in the kitchen that Derek could actually look at it without seeing the memory of the burned body of one of his sisters, or the charred corpse of his cousin in the hallway.

_No one is taking my home from me again._ Derek swore as he trailed around the house, remembering.

The rain started shortly after dark, and Derek quickly learned there were very few rooms in the house that were still weather proof. In fact, the only room that didn't leak and was anywhere near intact was his parents' room. Derek started to enter and found himself frozen at the entrance, unable to actually cross the threshold and enter his father's private territory. Finally Derek took a deep breath and turned around, walking down the hall to his old room.

His room was a little worse for the wear; most of his old belongings burned in the fire, rotted, or were stolen. Derek put his head in the corner where the roof still protected his room from the rain and used his leather jacket as a pillow. _At least the blood will be less noticeable now._

Despite his comfortable accommodations he didn't sleep. He stared at his ceiling listening to the rain until it stopped, and then listened to the sounds of the night until dawn came.

****S01E01****

The next day was entirely about recon and getting the essentials, Derek had no other clothing and no food.

His first stop was by the local Goodwill, he dug through t-shirts until he found a few plain ones that would blend in well with the atmosphere of the woods and make him harder to spot. Four t-shirts, two pair of jeans, and ten dollars later Derek had enough for the time being. The next stop was Wal-Mart to buy boxers, socks, environmentally friendly detergent, several different cans of food, a loaf of bread, and peanut butter.

Shopping complete Derek went to a laundry mat and washed all his new clothing, and the blood stained black shirt. He was instantly uncomfortable as people stared at him. He wasn't body conscious, you didn't grow up in a werewolf pack without losing your sense of modesty, it was just that the attention he was getting would make him noticeable and he was trying to keep a low profile. His clothing couldn't be clean soon enough and Derek almost sighed with relief when he was finally able to put on his 'new' clean white shirt. The only good thing about the attention he gathered was that he got a girl's number, she wanted to meet up tonight but he put her off and she agreed to see him Saturday night.

Derek folded all of his clothing and set it in the trunk of his car, the safest place he had for it. It was only about noon and he could finally move on to something he wanted to do, hunt down the Argents. It didn't take long for Derek to track down the famous werewolf hunters down. They had moved away shortly after the fire but they were obviously back, which meant new house sales.

The subdivision that the Argents lived it was new, and Derek found he could park his car by a neighbor's driveway without raising suspicion. He watched the house most of the day, watched as Chris came and went with or without his wife.

Derek fought his rage down again, why did Chris get to have the perfect life with a family when they had destroyed his? The rage in his stomach was starting to boil when he saw her, a teenager about Dumbass and Smartass's age, pull up in her car and head inside. _Chris' daughter, Allison_. It was perfect.

Derek could picture himself sneaking in tonight while the rest of her family searched the woods and hunted him and leaving her corpse for Chris to find. The thought gave him a twinge of some emotion he refused to acknowledge. It was common sense, not the twinge, that convinced him not to kill the girl tonight, he had to find Dumbass and see if he was part of the hunters that killed his sister or not. Derek watched the Argents for a while longer, listening in to their conversations.

Alison was apparently excited because some boy, called Scott, had asked her to a party. Her completely cliché response reminded Derek of Laura, right before the school dance that saved their lives. Laura tried on a thousand outfits before she found _the one_. They had only been at the dance a few minutes before the police found them and told them that there had been an 'accident'.

Derek lost himself in his memories again; it was the moon's pull that finally brought him out of his thoughts. Night had fallen and the moon peaked periodically through the clouds to call to him. He was about to start his car and try and locate Dumbass when he smelled him.

Dumbass sat in a car right outside of the Argents home. His car's window was rolled down and his scent wafted out of it and travelled through Derek's own open window. Dumbass smelled nervous.

Derek's eyes flashed blue for a moment, this was the clue he had been looking for. Dumbass was with the Argents, and he killed Laura. Derek's hand went to his car door handle, he didn't have a plan besides rip Dumbass into little wolfy pieces, but the Argent's front door opened and Allison walked out. She stood in the doorway for a moment. She ducked her head and swiped her hair behind her ear in a shy way before she closed the door and walked to Dumbass and his car.

"You look really nice." Dumbass said as Allison slid into the car next to him.

"Thanks." Allison blushed as she pulled on her seatbelt. "You too."

Derek sat in his car for a moment as they pulled out of the driveway. Dumbass must be Scott, the guy who was taking Allison to the party. Could this boy even be innocent if he was so smack dab in the middle of everything?

Derek pulled out behind them and trailed them to the party, still trying to figure out which was the best course of action.

****S01E01****

It was obvious to Derek when they were close to the party, he could hear the music a mile out. He parked on the next street over and walked through a neighbor's backyard to arrive at the back of the party, he wanted to observe Scott and Allison before either one of them saw him.

When they walked in it was obvious they were both nervous, they kept a respectable distance between themselves. Scott noticed Derek right away, and as they made eye contact Derek felt animosity rise up in him, setting the other neighbor's Rottweiler off.

The rottie growled and barked, warning the dangerous creature away from his humans. Derek looked back over his shoulder at the pooch and made eye contact. The effect was almost instantaneous, the Rottweiler recognized him as more dominant and yet non-threatening; and he paused looking more curious now.

Derek looked back at Scott and saw that the interplay between him and the dog hadn't gone unnoticed. Scott continued to stare until Allison distracted him.

"You okay?" Her voice rose with a note of true concern as she looked at Scott. Did she know that Scott was a ticking time bomb? Any moment the moon could pull him into transforming and he was in the middle of a party with humans. Or was she just worried because he seemed distracted?

"What?" Scott asked, giving Allison his full attention.

Derek realized he couldn't remain out in the open for long, but the dancing mob of teenagers was more then he felt he could handle on the full moon night. He looked around for a moment and saw that the roof was low enough for him to jump on. Derek leapt up, and Scott disappeared from view for a moment.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Derek jumped across the roof again, painfully aware that he was silhouetted for a moment by the full moon. He slid to the opposite side of the roof and looked to see how Scott reacted to seeing the cloudy full moon.

Scott continued to stare at the moon until Allison reached her hand out and began to wiggle her fingers, obviously inviting him to hold her hand. Derek felt the urge to gag as Scott slid his hand into the Argent's awaiting fingers, a goofy love-struck grin on his face. They both began dancing in the throng of teenagers and Derek felt boredom mix with his disgust.

It wasn't long before Scott began to act strangely, the moon filling him with her power and starting the transformation. Scott had no clue what was happening so he ducked his head and made excuses as he stumbled into the house. Derek slid around the roof of the house, trying to figure out how to keep a massacre from happening if Scott lost it in the house with all the humans.

Derek slid off the edge of the roof and into the host's front yard. He braced himself for dealing with all the drunken horny teenagers in the house and started forward towards the throng. Relief flooded him as he spotted Scott stumbling down the stairs and heading towards his car. He was starting to turn, clutching at his stomach to try and dig at the cramps, he panted with the agony of fighting the change. Derek started towards him and Allison cut in front of him as she ran after her date.

Scott pulled out and started speeding down the road and Allison pulled up short, looking lost and confused. Derek saw an opportunity.

"Allison." She looked to him immediately, confusion and wariness written on her face. Derek said the first thing that he could think of to put her at ease. "I'm a friend of Scott's." Derek didn't think she believed him at first, she looked back at where Scott's taillights were beginning to fade with a concerned look, and Derek used her distraction to move in closer.

"My name's Derek." He looked into her eyes to see if she recognized him. She just crossed her arms over her stomach in an unconscious protective gesture.

"Allison." She said, more as if she didn't know what else to say than because she felt she needed to introduce herself.

"Scott isn't feeling well. I know he left you without a ride. Did you want a ride home?" Derek smelled her fear increase as she took a step back, looking to make sure they weren't alone. "I parked on the next street over; I'm going to head home. This is not really my thing."

Allison continued to look confused and cautious. "If it's not your thing why did you come?"

"A girl asked me to come, but she never showed." Derek explained, trying for plausible. "I'm sure you can find someone else to give you a ride. I just figured if you wanted to go home now, instead of at 2 or 3 am, I'd offer you a lift." Allison paused, considering. There was no way the Argents would allow her to stay out that late on a full moon night.

"I haven't been drinking." Derek offered, as though that were her only reason for not immediately taking him up on his offer. Allison nodded hesitantly and Derek gestured with his head, his hands still safely in his pockets. "It's just over that way."

Derek looked back just once as they started to leave the circle of party goers, and noticed Smartass standing at the entrance to the house. Derek nodded as though he knew him when Allison looked up, and even waved. Smartass waved in response in an automatic way and Derek kept walking. Allison seemed less wary when they finally reached his car.

He politely opened her car door, something he knew Scott hadn't done. She smiled shyly as she slid into the passenger seat and he shut the door. Alone for a second Derek looked around again to make sure they were unobserved. He could kill her and no one would connect them together, except maybe Smartass.

Derek slid into his car and started it. "Where do you live?"

Allison rattled off her address, but Derek wasn't pay attention. This was the moment of truth, he could go to her home and drop her off before he went out and searched for Scott. Scott could be rampaging even now, killing innocents as he transformed into a creature he knew nothing about; if he's just an innocent teenager in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or Scott could be turning into an Alpha and he was trying to keep himself a secret from the Argents, their code requires they kill themselves on the full moon if they turn. If he was an Alpha there was an even higher change that he would go on a killing spree.

Or Derek could kill her and start avenging his family, blood for blood; ignoring the budding werewolf turning on his first full moon and the innocents he could kill.

_You are better than them._ Derek's father's voice echoed through his head; Derek remembered when his father told him that. He had been crouched in a boy's yard, fully transformed waiting for the boy to take the trash out. The guy had been a bully, tormenting him at school for weeks, and Derek was going to even the score. He never figured out how his father knew. But he had shown up, put his hand on Derek's shoulder, and whispered in his ear. _You are better than them. _As Derek looked up into his father's red eyes he understood. If he killed or tormented the bully, he would bring attention to the pack; draw the hunter's attention. Alphas must always do what's best for the pack no matter the personal cost, and if he ever wanted to be a good Alpha like his father, he needed to always think of his pack first. Derek let the kid continue to bully him for years, until finally one summer he grew and put on enough muscle that he finally appeared strong enough as a human to defeat him as a human would.

_I don't have a pack anymore._ Derek told the ghost of his father. His hands clenched the steering wheel, knuckles going white.

"Are you okay?" Allison looked over at Derek with concern in her eyes, almost exactly how she had looked at Scott. It was that concern that decided it for Derek. If he killed her, then the Argents would be right in their quest to kill him and wipe his family from the face of the earth; but if he kept his hands clean of human blood when they killed him it would start a war.

"I'm fine." And suddenly Derek was, his muscles relaxed and he turned the wheel to continue on the path to the Argent's home. The thought of his death didn't alarm or upset him, with his pack dead he had nothing left to live for. When he died the other werewolves would be able to prove that he was innocent of killing any humans, that the Argents were killing off werewolf families without a reason; packs across the world would rise up and wipe the Argents from existence.

Now Derek's big concern was what to do about Scott. If he was turning into a Beta Derek figured he had to teach him to control himself without killing hundreds of innocents, if he even survived the transformation. If he was an Alpha, Derek could kill his sister's murderer before he died. Allison's scent wafted about the car as Derek drove. His heater was on because he had driven with the windows down earlier to track Scott and it was chilly out, but his windows were up now and it was getting a little warmer than was comfortable. Just as he decided he should probably turn off the heater Allison shrugged out of her coat, and an idea struck. If Derek could distract her enough that she left her coat in the car, he could use it as a beacon to draw Scott in.

Now all he had to do was make small talk. "So you just moved here?" Derek's voice came out a little strained.

Allison looked over at him and smiled a little. "I take it you don't like small talk?"

Derek smiled a little at her. "Very perceptive. But I don't want you to freak out 'cause technically you don't know me, and we are alone in a car together."

"Why should that freak me out?" Allison's eyebrow rose in a challenge.

"There was a murder just a few nights ago."

"I can take care of myself." Allison professed, sounding confident.

"I'm sure that's exactly what she thought too." Derek could feel her eyes on him even as he stared out the windshield, eyes that probed him and saw more then he wanted them to.

"Did you know her?" Allison's voice dropped into sad soothing tones.

"She hasn't been identified yet." Derek tried to brush her off. "We're here."

Allison looked up as they pulled into her driveway. Derek considered getting out and walking her to her door, that's how he would have treated his own date, but she wasn't his date and she was an Argent. As she hopped out of the car and went to the door, Derek felt relief that hadn't decided to kill her. There was something disarming about the teenage Argent. She reminded him of his younger sister, they would be the same age right about now. He waited until she opened the door and slipped in, _until she was safe_, before he started driving away.

He headed straight for the preserve, parking his car on the outskirts. If the Argents were prowling around the woods he didn't want his car to lead them to his home again. He fished Allison's jacket out of the floorboard of his car and he made sure to brush it against trees as he walked into the woods. If Scott found his car, he would follow the scent to exactly where Derek wanted him to be. Once he was sure that he had gone deep enough into the woods that there was slim to no chance of any innocent humans getting caught up in a battle he hung Allison's jacket on a tree branch and waited.

Derek heard Scott coming from miles off, he was running through the woods with no regards to the amount of noise he was making. He made a bee line straight for Allison's jacket in the tree. His back was to Derek and it irritated him because he couldn't tell if Scott was an Alpha or not, he couldn't see his eyes. He made some noise in the woods to try and get Scott to focus on him, but the baby werewolf couldn't locate him and ended up facing away from him again.

Scott spoke, his voice full of rage. "Where is she?"

_At least he had the sense not to yell. _"She's safe." Derek spoke in a normal tone, knowing that Scott could hear him easily. "From you."

Scott continued to look around as though trying to pinpoint Derek, though he crouched not ten feet from him. Derek felt the rage for his dead sister rise up and he launched himself at Scott. He threw Scott to the ground and rolled him, trying to gain the upper hand and pin the new werewolf. They rolled down a slight hill before Derek finally had Scott pinned, he scooted him and threw him up against a tree to get a better look at his eyes.

Derek pulled his arm back, claws ready to burst out and rip into his sister's murderer's throat, and gazed into terrified yellow eyes. _Damn it._

Derek kept him pinned even as Scott asked, terrified and still enraged, "what did you do with her?" But even as Scott spoke Derek heard the slight rustle of leaves, more than could be accounted for by their little tussle down the hill, and his head shot up and he listened. The normal sounds of the woods were absent, which could be because there were two werewolves fighting in the vicinity. But the silence allowed Derek to hear the continued rustle of leaves as someone trudged through them.

"Quiet." Derek warned in a low voice. Scott looked around seeming confused and still defensive, but with one inhale Derek knew it was too late. Their little fight and Scott's stampeding through the woods had drawn the attention of the hunters.

"Too late." Derek looked down at the new werewolf beneath him; if he wasn't with the Argents then they would kill him. "They're already here. Run." He warned Scott as best he could, ending with as much of a command as he could muster.

Derek pushed off and bolted for the trees, making an effort to move silently as well as quickly. He heard the sound of springs and strings snapping and the whistle of an arrow before a thunk and a bright light burst behind him and to his left, right in front of Scott. _If he's smart he'll keep running._

There was another sound of a crossbow bolt being loosed, and this time the thunk of it hitting a tree was drowned out by the Scott's shout of pain. Derek couldn't help but look back, and through the trees he could see Scott pinned to a tree. Scott continued to groan in pain as he looked at his impaled arm, but he didn't reach to pull the arrow out. _Damnit kid, pull out the arrow!_

Derek almost groaned aloud as he turned around and slid into a crouch, keeping his profile low and harder for the hunters to see. There was  
no way he was going to allow the hunters to torture and kill this poor kid. He assessed the situation quickly, they were moving in a triangular assault pattern, Argent leading the way with his crossbow while two other hunters provided backup. The other hunters were carrying shotguns, which cause a lot more damage than a regular gun but was less likely to be laced with wolfsbane.

"Take him." Chris Argent told his lackeys, and Derek was immediately incensed.

_He's just a kid Argent. _Derek wanted to snarl, but if they didn't know of his presence then it would be easier to ambush them.

Derek rushed forward and grabbed the larger of Argent's lackeys. He was careful to keep his claws and strength in check as he grabbed and threw the heavier man easily, he would leave the Argents no reason to cry foul and hunt him. The other two hunters instinctively turned to the sound of their comrade rolling down the hill and Derek was able to snag the other hunter with just as much easy, grabbing the back of his hooded jacket and tossing him backwards into some trees.

Chris Argent pulled his gun as he whipped around to face where his backup used to be, and Derek slid past him to release Scott. Despite the distraction Derek was providing Scott hadn't moved; he stood there paralyzed in shock and fear. Derek grasped the arrow and pulled it out of Scoot in one smooth motion, causing Scott to cry out as he was released. Derek was prepared for his cry and was still moving, running away from the one standing hunter and deeper into the woods. This time Scott followed him and ran with him, pack mentality taking over. _Flea the danger with pack_.

Derek allowed Scott to pull ahead of him, guarding his flank incase the hunters started firing. Scott was wounded and it fell to Derek to protect him. But Scott wasn't used to running, especially in the woods and he grew exhausted and stopped before Derek would have. He collapsed against a tree panting and Derek halted beside him warily watching for danger.

When Scott whipped around suddenly to rest against the tree Derek looked at him to make sure he wasn't attacking before returning to his vigil, trying to listen for any hunters following them.

"Who were they?" Scott asked, out of breath and obviously scared.

Derek checked once more for the hunters, but there didn't appear to be any pursuit as of yet; they were probably tending to their wounded and regrouping. "Hunters. The kind that have been hunting us for centuries."

"US?" Scott yelled, incredulous. "You mean you! You did this to me!"

Derek looked at Scott. His face was a mask of accusation and rage, there was no way that he would believe him of Derek told him that he wasn't the one that had bitten him. Derek approached him slowly, as long as Scott hated himself there was no way Scott would be able to control himself. Without control there was no way Scott would be able to help him hunt down the werewolf who killed his sister.

The fact that Scott would see this gift as a curse surprised Derek. "Is it really so bad Scott?"

Scott cringed away from Derek's advance and Derek realized he was aggressively challenging Scott, pushing him further into the tree with his dominance. Derek found he didn't want to stop; he _needed_ Scott to see that being a werewolf wasn't bad. "That you can see better? Hear more clearly, move faster than any human could ever hope?"

The moon's call pounded at Derek's back and he could feel the power in him. Derek had never wanted to be human, unlike some of his family. Derek was a werewolf, and while there were many things he hated about himself, he had never hated that. This mewling teenager didn't realize the full power of the gift he had been given, and Derek needed him to see it. "You've been given something most people would kill for."

Scott tried to meet Derek's eyes but couldn't, and he collapsed in on himself for a moment. Derek needed Scott to see how sacred the bite he had been given was. "The bite is a gift."

"I don't want it." Scott snarled, looking up at Derek with bared teeth.

Derek could already see his mannerisms begin to change and he knew that Scott would adjust to being a werewolf easily. "You will." _As soon as you stop whining about it and accept it. _"And you're going to need me if you want to learn how to control it."

Derek leaned in and put his hand on Scott's shoulder, making himself eye level with Scott it try and put him somewhat at ease. Scott flinched before making eye contact, and Derek tried to stress that he wanted to help him, that he would protect him no matter what. "So you and me, Scott. We're brothers now."

Derek could tell that Scott was still uncomfortable and didn't trust him, so he backed off. He withdrew his hand and walked off into the woods, leaving Scott to dwell on his words. But Derek knew that Scott was still vulnerable, and the hunters were still out in the woods looking for them. As soon as he left Scott he retraced their steps until he almost ran into the hunters. They were following the trail they had both left easily.

When they were running away from the hunters Derek had made certain to step over Scott's footprints to obscure them and he hoped they didn't know about him. The hunters would be certain that there were two werewolves in the woods; but hopefully they just thought it was a Beta and an Alpha, protecting a Beta was an Alpha thing to do so they wouldn't assume the werewolf that attacked them was also a Beta.

If Derek was careful and drew the hunters away from where he thought Scott would be they would never suspect that there were actually three werewolves in town, he could keep his new brother safe. Eventually the hunters would trap and kill him, and if he hadn't killed the Alpha by then they would trap and kill the Alpha. If Derek could keep Scott a secret from them until then they would never even know to hunt him. As long as Derek had the chance to teach him to control himself he would be safe from the hunters, _forever._

Derek led the hunters through the woods for hours. They almost caught sight of him several times, and he was half blinded twice by the light-burst arrows they loved to use; but these woods had been his home and he could find his way through them completely blind if he needed to, despite the six years since he had last walked them.

Derek soon began to feel very grateful for his exercise routine. While the hunters traded off in shifts, Derek was forced to keep going all on his own. Due to their rotating schedule the hunters were able to keep Derek on the move almost constantly. Derek fought to keep them guessing as he hid his trail in a thousand different ways to try and get enough of a reprieve to rest. He ran across rocks and through rivers. He climbed one trees and jumped to the next and the next when they were close enough together before jumping down to confuse his trail, that usually bought him enough time to get far enough away to catch his breath before they started closing in again. The hunters were merciless in their pursuit. Hunting him night and day until finally they gave up shortly before dawn Monday morning; they probably all had real jobs to get to Monday and wanted to be well rested.

Derek made certain they were no longer following him before hiding his trail as best he could. Finally free of his pursuers he went back to the clearing that he had drawn Scott to. Allison's jacket remained on its branch and Derek snagged it before he started looking around, making sure there was nothing that could lead back to Scott in the leaves.

_Exhaustion is no excuse to be sloppy. That's how they find you. _This time it was his mother's advice that prodded him to keep searching, to make sure that every base was covered before he let his exhausted body rest. That was how he located the girl from the Laundromat's phone number; it must have fallen out of his pocket during the scuffle with Scott. As he straightened it out with hands that shook from exhaustion he realized he wouldn't call her. There were a lot of people out to kill him, and all he needed was some innocent girl's blood on his hands. Derek tore the number up and shoved the pieces into his pocket to throw away.

It was already 8 o'clock in the morning by the time Derek was certain he had covered all his bases and he made it home. Derek was bone tired, he hadn't slept since Laura died Wednesday night. Despite his superhuman strength and resilience after almost three days of running and five nights without sleep he needed rest. But now he found that he still couldn't sleep despite his exhaustion. Scott maybe a dumbass, but he wasn't Laura's killer, and he needed protecting. With someone to protect Derek felt as though he still had a pack and a purpose, a way to try and make things right.

Derek stared through the hole in his ceiling and tried to think of a plan of attack, but his mind was fuzzy with exhaustion and he was so tired he felt sick. He needed to talk to Scott again, he would still be feeling the effects of the full moon and he was still dangerous and Derek needed him to understand that. There was a lot of lore out on werewolves and Derek wasn't sure if Scott even knew he could change without the full moon. Derek figured that Scott probably went to school this morning, so he would have to get him after classes let out if he wanted to talk to him.

_I could lay here for a few hours and get some sleep._ But Derek was already leveraging himself up with a tired grunt. He walked the few miles to his car with heavy footfalls, and drove to Beacon Hills High School. When he got there Derek parked down the street on the other side of the lacrosse field, close to the trees so that they would block some sun and hide his car a little.

Finally out of tasks to complete, and knowing he could do no more to protect Scott, Derek closed his eyes and passed out.

****S01E01****

Okay what does everyone think? Derek is alone a lot so there really isn't a lot of dialogue. Sorry. But I think I got everything word for word when I was matching timelines with the show. There isn't going to be any pairings not found in the show, despite how much I would love to! Derek was born a werewolf; he would see things differently than a human would. I'm thinking body language is very important to him which is one of the reasons he doesn't talk a lot. I also tried to keep the body language as close to what happens on camera as a can!

Is there anything I should do differently? Something that irked you? TELL ME I NEED TO KNOW!

Anywho, episode 1 is done!


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